How will Rupert Murdoch's Fox News handle gun control?

12/15/12 8:55 PM EST

Since Friday's tragic shooting in Newtown, Conn., News Corp. chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch has twice called on the President to ban automatic weapons.

"When will politicians find courage to ban automatic weapons?" he wrote on Twitter Friday night. "Nice words from POTUS on shooting tragedy, but how about some bold leadership action?" he wrote again Saturday.

Murdoch's stance is a stark contrast to the position most often advocated on Fox News, which Murdoch owns.

In response to Friday's news, Gov. Mike Huckabee -- a host and frequent guest -- told Fox News viewers " laws don't change this kind of thing," and instead blamed the removal of "God from our schools." Conservative pundit Ann Coulter, another frequent guest, used Twitter and the popular radio show hosted by Sean Hannity, a Fox News host, to advocate concealed-carry laws: "more guns, less mass shootings," she wrote.

Fox News guests and hosts even oppose a discussion of gun control in the wake of a shooting, on the grounds that such tragedies should not be politicized. When NBC's Bob Costas addressed the issue in the wake of the murder-suicide by NFL linebacker Javon Belcher, Fox News hosts got deffensive: "That belonged on NBC's cable channel," guest-host Laura Ingraham said, referring to MSNBC. "It's NFL Sunday... do I really want Bob Costas giving me a lecture on the second amendment?" co-host Eric Bolling asked.

Fox News president Roger Ailes, not Murdoch, oversees the network's programming. But Murdoch oversees Ailes, and writes his checks. In his tweet Saturday night, Murdoch called for "some bold leadership action" from the President of the United States. He does not seem to have called on the President of Fox News to entertain a legitimate, nonpartisan discussion about a ban on automatic weapons.